When my students come up to me to ask how they can practice making sentences, one of the things I always suggest is to just randomly pick some words from the chapter's vocabulary list and make a sentence out of them. Then they can come to me, or go to a tutor, and have the sentence evaluated for content and form. But somehow students seem to think that the process of randomly selecting sentence pieces doesn't make sense. To help them understand the concept I've created the Random Sentence Generator using Excel. There are two versions of this tool. The first generates a list of random words in Spanish that the students should then combine into a sentence, and the second generates a random list of words in English, that the students then need to translate into Spanish and then combine into a sentence. (Here is a copy of a Random Sentence Generator of the second type.) I've used these Random Sentence Generators several times in class and students really seem to like them! They especially have fun when the randomly generated list of words makes absolutely no sense, so they have to get creative! When we use this tool in class I usually provide them with four or five different lists of words, and then give them a few minutes to create their sentences, and finally I have them write their sentences on the board so that we can go over them as a class.
Technical Stuff:
The way the generator works is fairly straightforward. Put each vocabulary category into a single column. Then, use the formula:
=INDEX(Table14[Name],1+INT(RAND()*COUNTA(Table14[Name])))
Example (for a list of words contained in cells A11 through A20):
=INDEX(A$11:A$20,1+INT(RAND()*COUNTA(A$11:A$20)))
to have a word randomly selected from each column each time you refresh.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Shooter Safety Game (Brainstorm)
So I was sitting through another really boring orientation meeting about how to react when there is an active shooter on campus and I thought to myself. Someone should make a game for this! You could have all the different situations and have the player react to them, and if they make a mistake they die!
Is anyone aware of any such game that's already out there? If so, please link it in the comments!
Is anyone aware of any such game that's already out there? If so, please link it in the comments!
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Chaboonary
One of the learning activities that I enjoy doing with my students (and which they enjoy as well, as far as I can tell) is something that I affectionately call Chaboonary. Basically, it is a hodgepodge of Charades, Taboo, and Pictionary. Chaboonary is a simple vocabulary review game that can be played with zero prep time.
To play Chaboonary, divide the class into groups. Then have one student at a time come to the front of the class. (I usually rotate through the groups, but you can also just call them randomly.) Pick a word from the vocabulary list at the back of the textbook chapter and show it to the student (who will almost invariably moan and say that that was the one word that they were hoping you wouldn't pick). The student then has one minute to try and get someone to guess what the word was (more on this shortly). The team that correctly guesses the word gets 5 points.
The student has four different approaches that they can use to try and get their peers to guess the word (one from each source game, and then the mix-and-match option):
Speaking: The student can try to explain the word using circumlocution. They are not allowed to use any words on the vocabulary page (including words like "noun").
Drawing/writing: The student can write, draw anything on the chalkboard/whiteboard. The same restrictions on which words can be written apply as those for which words can be spoken.
Acting: Students more inclined to movement can act out the word.
Mix-and-match: Students are allowed to mix-and-match any of the previous techniques. One of the favorite ways that students will do this is to draw something, point emphatically at it, and say something like: "The opposite of this."
I developed this approach because I had found that whenever I tried to do a quick vocabulary review using the framework of just one of the source games that there were invariably students who would complain and zone-out. (I.e. less artistic students did not enjoy playing pictionary.) With the Chaboonary approach this issue is eliminated.
Enjoy!
To play Chaboonary, divide the class into groups. Then have one student at a time come to the front of the class. (I usually rotate through the groups, but you can also just call them randomly.) Pick a word from the vocabulary list at the back of the textbook chapter and show it to the student (who will almost invariably moan and say that that was the one word that they were hoping you wouldn't pick). The student then has one minute to try and get someone to guess what the word was (more on this shortly). The team that correctly guesses the word gets 5 points.
The student has four different approaches that they can use to try and get their peers to guess the word (one from each source game, and then the mix-and-match option):
Speaking: The student can try to explain the word using circumlocution. They are not allowed to use any words on the vocabulary page (including words like "noun").
Drawing/writing: The student can write, draw anything on the chalkboard/whiteboard. The same restrictions on which words can be written apply as those for which words can be spoken.
Acting: Students more inclined to movement can act out the word.
Mix-and-match: Students are allowed to mix-and-match any of the previous techniques. One of the favorite ways that students will do this is to draw something, point emphatically at it, and say something like: "The opposite of this."
I developed this approach because I had found that whenever I tried to do a quick vocabulary review using the framework of just one of the source games that there were invariably students who would complain and zone-out. (I.e. less artistic students did not enjoy playing pictionary.) With the Chaboonary approach this issue is eliminated.
Enjoy!
Monday, June 23, 2014
How to get good grades in college foreign language courses
The purpose of this post is to help students have a better idea of what they can do in order to get good grades in college foreign language courses regardless of their aptitude with foreign languages. Although some of the information in this post is repeated from earlier posts, there is also new content that I believe will be helpful. Much of this content is also generalizable to other courses, and even to other levels (such as high school), but I've found that many of my own students were not familiar with these ideas, or at least the benefits of their application.
Let's start with some general things that will help with grades in any course at any level:
1. Go to class. Research has found that even if your attendance does not directly affect your grade (i.e. your grade doesn't get dinged if you skip), it will be correlated with your grade. (See for example Gunn 1993)
2. Do your homework. Research has also found that even if your homework does not directly affect your grade (i.e. the homework is not graded), it will be correlated with your grade. (See for example Cooper et al. 2006)
3. Eat right. Healthy eating habits have been shown to correlate with better grades. (See for example this report)
4. Get good sleep. Sufficient sleep has been correlated with better grades. (See for example Curcio et al. 2006)
5. Exercise. Regular physical activity has been correlated with better grades. (See for example Singh et al. 2012)
Now let's move on to college foreign language courses. Basically, this section has to do with working on the "Four Skills" beyond how you are already supposed to be practicing them:
1. Listening (you are trying to improve your ability to tell where words begin and end, and to pick out general meaning from context). I recommend that you watch your favorite movies dubbed in the language. This approach has several advantages: It's simple and easy (so you are more likely to do it). You already know the basic ideas behind what is being said (so you will understand more). You will enjoy the movies (so you will practice more).
2. Speaking (you are trying to make pronunciation, vocabulary selection, and grammar as natural as possible). The best way to practice is to simply speak in the language as much as possible in class. In the beginning this will mostly consist of you using words and phrases in the target language within sentences in your native language. For example: "Could I borrow a boligrafo?" This is great! Who cares if no one else (possibly even your instructor) is using the new language? And don't worry about perfection. This is practice we're talking about.
3. Reading (you are trying to pick out more detailed meaning than with listening). Read books that are below your regular reading level that you have already read and enjoyed in your native language (for adults I usually suggest that they pick up books that they enjoyed in their middle school / high school years). One popular approach is to read the book in both languages at the same time, switching back and forth at chapter boundaries.
4. Writing (you are trying to use the grammar and vocabulary that you are being taught). Write sentences using randomly selected grammar and vocabulary that you are covering in class. Then have someone (such as your instructor) look over your sentences and correct them. This works especially well if you provide them with a rubric (e.g. give me 5 points for using the grammar in the right way, 2 points for spelling correctly, 3 points for using vocabulary words correctly, etc.), and then having them score you and then see if you can improve your score each time.
Let's start with some general things that will help with grades in any course at any level:
1. Go to class. Research has found that even if your attendance does not directly affect your grade (i.e. your grade doesn't get dinged if you skip), it will be correlated with your grade. (See for example Gunn 1993)
2. Do your homework. Research has also found that even if your homework does not directly affect your grade (i.e. the homework is not graded), it will be correlated with your grade. (See for example Cooper et al. 2006)
3. Eat right. Healthy eating habits have been shown to correlate with better grades. (See for example this report)
4. Get good sleep. Sufficient sleep has been correlated with better grades. (See for example Curcio et al. 2006)
5. Exercise. Regular physical activity has been correlated with better grades. (See for example Singh et al. 2012)
Now let's move on to college foreign language courses. Basically, this section has to do with working on the "Four Skills" beyond how you are already supposed to be practicing them:
1. Listening (you are trying to improve your ability to tell where words begin and end, and to pick out general meaning from context). I recommend that you watch your favorite movies dubbed in the language. This approach has several advantages: It's simple and easy (so you are more likely to do it). You already know the basic ideas behind what is being said (so you will understand more). You will enjoy the movies (so you will practice more).
2. Speaking (you are trying to make pronunciation, vocabulary selection, and grammar as natural as possible). The best way to practice is to simply speak in the language as much as possible in class. In the beginning this will mostly consist of you using words and phrases in the target language within sentences in your native language. For example: "Could I borrow a boligrafo?" This is great! Who cares if no one else (possibly even your instructor) is using the new language? And don't worry about perfection. This is practice we're talking about.
3. Reading (you are trying to pick out more detailed meaning than with listening). Read books that are below your regular reading level that you have already read and enjoyed in your native language (for adults I usually suggest that they pick up books that they enjoyed in their middle school / high school years). One popular approach is to read the book in both languages at the same time, switching back and forth at chapter boundaries.
4. Writing (you are trying to use the grammar and vocabulary that you are being taught). Write sentences using randomly selected grammar and vocabulary that you are covering in class. Then have someone (such as your instructor) look over your sentences and correct them. This works especially well if you provide them with a rubric (e.g. give me 5 points for using the grammar in the right way, 2 points for spelling correctly, 3 points for using vocabulary words correctly, etc.), and then having them score you and then see if you can improve your score each time.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Language Learning Games vs. Glorified Flashcards
Anyone who is familiar with my research is probably aware of the fact that I tend to be very critical of what I call "glorified flashcards" (GFs). I use this term to refer to language learning digital "games" that are basically fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice questions slapped into a basic electronic gaming environment. Often these take the form of Jeopardy-type games.
However, I thought that I should point out that though I am critical of using GFs as language learning serious "games", I do believe that they can be very useful! In fact, I use them quite frequently. I just don't think that they should be considered as serious language learning "games". Instead, they are glorified flashcards. They are tools that allow language learners to quickly practice specific language elements within a prepared electronic environment. But they are not really "games".
When I use GFs I tend to create them myself because I am very particular about the content and format that I like to have them use. For example, in a GF* that I created you can review any of the vocabulary from any of the chapters from any of the textbooks used for beginning and intermediate Spanish language courses at the University of Texas at Austin. In this case, I designed the GF to be as useful as possible for students in these courses because they can choose which chapter vocabulary lists they would like to practice. Moreover I created this game as a multiplayer game which makes it particularly useful (I've found) as an in-class review activity because you can pit groups of students against each other. And believe me, they can really get into it!
My most recent GF* is designed using the same framework (a multiplayer game that generates random questions based on content specified by the user.) In this new GF what I've done though is focused on verb conjugations instead of vocabulary identification. Players can choose which verb conjugations they would like to practice, and how large they would like the game to be, and the questions are randomly generated accordingly. Instead of basing the verbs used on any given textbook though, I have instead based them on Mark Davies' Frequency Dictionary of Spanish. That is, I took all the verbs (there are 1083) that appeared within the top 5000 most frequent words in Spanish. I also pulled their conjugations directly from the Royal Academy's website instead of creating a script to generate them automatically (I did this because a lot of them were irregular).
In my opinion (which is obviously biased, so feel free to share your own opinion below), I think that these GFs are on par with, or better than, most language learning "games" already out there. But they're still not really games. They're just competitive flashcards online. I do plan to continue developing more real language learning games, but these will be much more like the game* that I created for my dissertation. I hope that we can see many more such games be created, and I hope that they can be used effectively alongside the much more common GFs.
*Not currently available.
However, I thought that I should point out that though I am critical of using GFs as language learning serious "games", I do believe that they can be very useful! In fact, I use them quite frequently. I just don't think that they should be considered as serious language learning "games". Instead, they are glorified flashcards. They are tools that allow language learners to quickly practice specific language elements within a prepared electronic environment. But they are not really "games".
When I use GFs I tend to create them myself because I am very particular about the content and format that I like to have them use. For example, in a GF* that I created you can review any of the vocabulary from any of the chapters from any of the textbooks used for beginning and intermediate Spanish language courses at the University of Texas at Austin. In this case, I designed the GF to be as useful as possible for students in these courses because they can choose which chapter vocabulary lists they would like to practice. Moreover I created this game as a multiplayer game which makes it particularly useful (I've found) as an in-class review activity because you can pit groups of students against each other. And believe me, they can really get into it!
My most recent GF* is designed using the same framework (a multiplayer game that generates random questions based on content specified by the user.) In this new GF what I've done though is focused on verb conjugations instead of vocabulary identification. Players can choose which verb conjugations they would like to practice, and how large they would like the game to be, and the questions are randomly generated accordingly. Instead of basing the verbs used on any given textbook though, I have instead based them on Mark Davies' Frequency Dictionary of Spanish. That is, I took all the verbs (there are 1083) that appeared within the top 5000 most frequent words in Spanish. I also pulled their conjugations directly from the Royal Academy's website instead of creating a script to generate them automatically (I did this because a lot of them were irregular).
In my opinion (which is obviously biased, so feel free to share your own opinion below), I think that these GFs are on par with, or better than, most language learning "games" already out there. But they're still not really games. They're just competitive flashcards online. I do plan to continue developing more real language learning games, but these will be much more like the game* that I created for my dissertation. I hope that we can see many more such games be created, and I hope that they can be used effectively alongside the much more common GFs.
*Not currently available.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Family Feud for Language Learning
There's nothing like a little healthy competition to get adult language learners involved in class! Well, maybe chocolate, but for now we'll stick with competition. And what makes competition even better? When the students themselves have influence on the material!
I discovered this several years ago while teaching Spanish at The Pennsylvania State University. I had always created review games for my students on a regular basis, but until then I had always based the content of the games on what I thought the students should study, or on what would be covered in the exam. Makes sense, right? Well, at PSU I decided to take a new approach, I used the reports generated for me by the students' online homework to identify areas where students were committing the most errors, and I based the content of the Jeopardy-style review games on those areas. The students responded very positively to this new approach.
So, what has this got to do with Family Feud? Well, in Family Feud the content of the game comes from a survey. This is actually why I have normally avoided creating Family Feud-style games, because creating them requires involvement from more than just myself. And, as anyone who has tried to get volunteer assistance knows, it's hard to come by.
This semester I wanted to give it another go, so I had my students themselves complete the survey. This way I could more or less assure that the spirit of volunteerism would prevail. Moreover, I was able to make participation in both the survey and the game itself pedagogically relevant. Here's how I did it with the content from our textbook chapter that covers the arts (vocabulary) and hypotheses (grammar):
Preparation:
1. Generate
list of questions for students to answer. The questions should use the target
vocabulary but should not use the hypothesis structure. An example can be found
here.
You should give the students a few days to complete the form.
2. Collect
the students’ answers and determine which answers are the four most common for
each question. For ties, google the results and order them according to the
number of hits.
3. Generate
a question using the hypothesis structure for each item (I personally made sure
to never repeat any verbs). Fill out the FamilyFeud PowerPoint template with these questions and the
ordered answers.
4. Print
out an answer sheet using the option to print nine slides per page.
Execution:
1. Divide
the class into groups of around four students. All students should put their
textbooks away.
2. Open
the PowerPoint but leave it in “Normal” mode
(do NOT enter “Presentation” mode.)
3. Randomly
pick a group to go first.
4. Read
the question.
5. The
group can discuss and then one student must answer using the hypothesis
structure. (The student who answers for each group should rotate throughout the course of the game.)
6. Limit
the time each group has to answer to one minute.
7. If
the student answers with one of the answers (check the answer sheet) delete the
appropriate rectangle and give that group the number of points indicated on the
rectangle.
8. The
next group then gets a chance to answer the same question.
9. Continue
until all groups have had a chance to attempt to answer the question or until
there are no answers left to reveal.
10. The
group that answered second is now asked the next question. This way you rotate
which group gets to go first with each question.
11. When
you run out of time and/or questions the game is over and the group with the
highest score wins.
Results:
1. I
used this activity in the spring of 2014 with my SPN 610 class. My students
responded very positively to this activity! They were very excited and engaged,
and were especially excited to see whether their personal answers had won a
rank in the game. I also noticed:
a. Students
were often eagerly asking each other what different vocabulary words meant.
b. At
the beginning of the game many students were having difficulty with the
hypothesis structure, but by the end they were using much better and with
little/no help.
c. Unlike what often happens with my activities, there were no students who were not actively engaged in this game.
2. During
the spring of 2014 I also shared this activity with my colleagues who were also teaching SPN 610. One of them sent me an email letting me know that "My class loved the game!", and another referred to me as “Family Feud” with a big
smile on his face when passing me in the hall. I take this as evidence that
this activity worked with more than just my class.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Preparing for College/University Foreign Language Exams
I know that there is already a lot of advice floating around the web about how to prepare for exams, and I'd like to add my two cents. Granted, some classes, like high school calculus, don't require much studying. If you just pay attention in class and do the homework, you'll be ready for the exam. But there are some classes that its good to study for, such as second semester college Spanish. When it comes to studying for a foreign language exam, there are some good ideas, some okay ideas, and some bad ideas.
Bad ideas:
1. Staring at lists of vocabulary, grammar rules, etc. Unless you have photographic memory, staring at lists isn't going to do you much good, unless you can really quickly reproduce the lists on the back of your exam when you first start the exam (okay idea). Most foreign college-level foreign language exams these days are designed around the concept of Communicative Language Learning, so you're mostly going to see fill-in-the-blanks and short-answer questions. When you stare a list you are memorizing the content in a very specific context (a list), and it can be very hard for your brain to apply information stored in lists into questions that require you to understand the context.
2. Not going to class, not doing homework, not paying attention in class, not practicing the language in class, etc. Basically, if you don't do what your instructor tells you to do leading up to the exam, you're shooting yourself in the foot. If they are a good instructor then the exam will be formatted very similarly to the stuff they have been having you do in class and at home.
Okay ideas:
1. Going back over stuff that you did in class and at home. This is okay because you will be studying the content in the type of context in which it will be presented in the exam. However, its not a great method because you have already done it (hopefully). Which means that you already know the right answer (again, hopefully). So its very easy for you to not pay full attention to the context of each item while studying. You will probably find yourself moving very quickly and confidently through the previously completed assignments.
2. Cramming. Okay, no matter how much I hate to admit it, cramming can help...somewhat. Cramming tends to be especially useful if your instructor doesn't use much of an imagination, and you can quickly jot down on the back of your exam the stuff that you have crammed right when the exam starts, before you get confused by the questions on the exam.
3. Look for practice exercises on the web. This one tends to be hit or miss for several reasons. First, you may wind up spending a whole lot of time just looking for the darn things. Second, they may not be formatted the same way you know that your instructor will format the items on your exam. Third, there is usually no guarantee as to the quality of the activities. Sure, there's probably some good stuff out there for studying just about anything in any language. But there's also a lot of crap.
4. Flash cards. Yet another traditional method that isn't bad, but isn't great. Flash cards are better than staring at lists, because you see the items out of order, and you don't see the answer right next to the question. However, they are still repetitious, which means that your brain will tend to have a harder time generalizing the stuff you practice into new contexts, and they are usually not formatted like the items on your exam will be.
Good ideas:
1. Prepare your body. Seriously. You'd be amazed how much better you can do on an exam when you have been eating the right foods, keeping yourself hydrated with water, and getting enough sleep. This page is a good resource on how to do this step.
2. Practice using what you'll be tested on. If you're exam is going to be covering the pluperfect subjunctive and vocabulary related to car parts, then practice making sentences (that make sense) using the pluperfect subjunctive and car parts. My favorite way to do this is to take your flash cards (okay idea) and put them in stacks: one for grammar, and one for vocabulary. Then you draw two cards at random (one from each pile), and write a sentence using those cards. I suggest that you do this a couple dozen times, and then take what you've done to your instructor's office hours and ask them to let you know how you're doing (i.e. where you screwed up.)
3. Doing the opposite of Bad Idea #2. If its already exam time, then it is too late to do this step, but if you still have a while, then you might seriously think about doing what your instructor expects you to do both in and out of class. If you don't believe me, you haven't tried it.
Bad ideas:
1. Staring at lists of vocabulary, grammar rules, etc. Unless you have photographic memory, staring at lists isn't going to do you much good, unless you can really quickly reproduce the lists on the back of your exam when you first start the exam (okay idea). Most foreign college-level foreign language exams these days are designed around the concept of Communicative Language Learning, so you're mostly going to see fill-in-the-blanks and short-answer questions. When you stare a list you are memorizing the content in a very specific context (a list), and it can be very hard for your brain to apply information stored in lists into questions that require you to understand the context.
2. Not going to class, not doing homework, not paying attention in class, not practicing the language in class, etc. Basically, if you don't do what your instructor tells you to do leading up to the exam, you're shooting yourself in the foot. If they are a good instructor then the exam will be formatted very similarly to the stuff they have been having you do in class and at home.
Okay ideas:
1. Going back over stuff that you did in class and at home. This is okay because you will be studying the content in the type of context in which it will be presented in the exam. However, its not a great method because you have already done it (hopefully). Which means that you already know the right answer (again, hopefully). So its very easy for you to not pay full attention to the context of each item while studying. You will probably find yourself moving very quickly and confidently through the previously completed assignments.
2. Cramming. Okay, no matter how much I hate to admit it, cramming can help...somewhat. Cramming tends to be especially useful if your instructor doesn't use much of an imagination, and you can quickly jot down on the back of your exam the stuff that you have crammed right when the exam starts, before you get confused by the questions on the exam.
3. Look for practice exercises on the web. This one tends to be hit or miss for several reasons. First, you may wind up spending a whole lot of time just looking for the darn things. Second, they may not be formatted the same way you know that your instructor will format the items on your exam. Third, there is usually no guarantee as to the quality of the activities. Sure, there's probably some good stuff out there for studying just about anything in any language. But there's also a lot of crap.
4. Flash cards. Yet another traditional method that isn't bad, but isn't great. Flash cards are better than staring at lists, because you see the items out of order, and you don't see the answer right next to the question. However, they are still repetitious, which means that your brain will tend to have a harder time generalizing the stuff you practice into new contexts, and they are usually not formatted like the items on your exam will be.
Good ideas:
1. Prepare your body. Seriously. You'd be amazed how much better you can do on an exam when you have been eating the right foods, keeping yourself hydrated with water, and getting enough sleep. This page is a good resource on how to do this step.
2. Practice using what you'll be tested on. If you're exam is going to be covering the pluperfect subjunctive and vocabulary related to car parts, then practice making sentences (that make sense) using the pluperfect subjunctive and car parts. My favorite way to do this is to take your flash cards (okay idea) and put them in stacks: one for grammar, and one for vocabulary. Then you draw two cards at random (one from each pile), and write a sentence using those cards. I suggest that you do this a couple dozen times, and then take what you've done to your instructor's office hours and ask them to let you know how you're doing (i.e. where you screwed up.)
3. Doing the opposite of Bad Idea #2. If its already exam time, then it is too late to do this step, but if you still have a while, then you might seriously think about doing what your instructor expects you to do both in and out of class. If you don't believe me, you haven't tried it.
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